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A retired firefighter and his wife nearly burned their Miami home to the ground in a fast-moving fire they acidentally started while naked in bed, fire officials said.

Lawrence Lowell spent 36 years fighting fires like the one that left his apartment in a charred heap this morning, but even he was surprised at the blaze.

Honey, Light My Fire

An elderly couple trying to get in a little afternoon delight wind up burning down their apartment. (Published Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009)

"My wife and I were laying in bed and I think she dozed off...and I think everything went up and it moved fast," said 63-year-old Lowell. "That's my baby....We just paid rent and all our bills. Now we got no place to do it."

Good to know his mind is still in the right place.

Fire Department spokesman Lt. Ignatius Carroll said the couple "were spending some quality time with each other" when a lit cigarette was dropped under their bed shortly before 9 a.m. in their apartment complex in the 1400 block of Northwest 19th Street.

"She didn't realize that happened until they started seeing flames and smoke coming up from under their bed," Carroll said. "They completely came out with nothing on, people had to give them something to cover up with."

Lowell's wife, Jolie, is wheelchair-bound and was pretty upset about the couple not getting a chance to spark their own fire.

"It was my cigarette. We were getting ready to do the nasty so that's why," she said. "You kind of forget about the cigarette."

The ex-firefighter said he and his wife tried putting out the fire with everything they could think of, from water to "mashed potatoes," but nothing worked.

"Massive, it moved so fast," Lowell said. "We lost everything."

Lowell and his wife made a quick exit once they determined they couldn't put out the fire -- in the nude.

"I went out stark naked and she had her underwear on," Lowell said. "Like I said, we were ready to make love and everything happened at the same time."

The couple were lucky to escape, though Lowell said he refused treatment for smoke inhalation.